Lands of the Umbral Sea

LOTUS

Your evening started as a social get together at the new manor home ofSir Larmont of Rocherd. A then important conversation on how toimprove Sir Larmont’s fief was interrupted by attempted murder. Youfollowed on of Sir Larmont’s serfs, a young woman named Silvana, tothe scene of the crime, where Merf, her husband, lay bleeding to deathin a barn basement. After stabilizing Merf and sending him home withanother serf, Byron, you picked up a suspicious trail leading out ofthe barn to the west. After coming across some deserters in SirLarmont’s small hamlet, you then encountered the mysterious assailant.
_ Shrouded by witchcraft and darkness, he was too wily to capture, and_escaped to the north. Luckily, you met Sir Csongor coming back from ahunt, and though he was typically rude, he lent you the use of hishunting dogs to further follow the trail. At the northern edge of SirLarmont’s fief, you came across the ruin of an ancient temple. Thefloor was recently cleared, revealing a pattern of symbols that youdeftly deciphered. After adjusting the puzzle stones, a secretcompartment unlocked in the center of the floor, revealing the hidingplace of a rune marked sphere of amber the size of a full grown lemon.
_ Rodrigo declared the stone heretical, though important enough to take_for later study and eventual destruction by church officials. Theevening has now settled in full, along with a thick, wet mist upon theland. The trail of the assailant leads north, out of Sir Larmont’sfief toward Milltown. The dogs seem eager but anxious as they millaround waiting to continue.

A Knight on the Fief

Lamont has a fief that grows wheat, barley, and has a small
orchard. The peasants to do not know how to grow flaxenreed. Orchard
is most profitable but we don’t have very much of it.

Milltown belongs to Sir Richard, a well known knight in the area who
lives in the manor at number 12 on the map. He has a frickin church in
his manor. WTF! We need a church on Sir Lamont’s fief.

This fief used to belong to Sir Charles who died in the civil war
without an heir.

Peasant women covered with blood came running up, said husband (Murph)
killed, asked for help. Rodrigo remebered the name Murph related to
some gambling problems. Wife’s name is Silvana.

Came to a roughly built wood barn built on a solid stone
foundation. In the era of the warlock kings, long ago, they built nice
stonework and so much stuff these days are built on top of those.

Silvana ran into the barn (one story structure with a basement). We
dismount and follow her into an old, well down, stone basement which
is very nicely built by advanced artisans of the ancients. Currently
is used as a storehouse with lots of barrels and casks of beer, wine,
and other good stuff.

In the middle of the floor was Murph in a growing pool of
blood. Another serf was trying to stem the flow of blood from Murph’s
leg.

Maduro lays on hands on Murph and Rodrigo does heal
spell. Rodrigo realizes he is diseased or poisoned. Next to Murph is a
broken bucket.

Other serf said he heard screaming, ran in to help.

Silvana basically heard scuffle, went to basement and found Murph.

Appears that there were at least 2 others in basement besides Murph
based on footprints. One of the others left 4 very faint bloodprints
(2 walking away from body to stairs and 2 up the stairs).

Rodrigo observs 2 highly precise wounds (back and leg), puncture
wounds either of which could have been lethal.

We tell the serf, Byron, and SIlvana to take Murph to Gary’s and keep
him there for the night.

Found tracks heading down the road to the west (3 sets). Part way
down, we can only see one set of footprints made by someone very light
of foot.

Winston stealthily moved forward and heard the rollilng of dice and 3
men talking.

The brave Paladin challenged the dice players and told them to repent
of their vices. He also asked if they had seen anyone going to the
west. They looked scared and said no. The Paladin attempted to detect
evil but did not.

Sir Lamant detected the tatto of Duke Geyza’s army on one of the
unknown men’s arms inferring they were slaves or deserters.

Rodrigo raised his holy symbol and demanded they confess their sins
and cast Confess on them. The dudes confessed that they deserted the
duke in battle and begged for mercy.

Maduro told the deserters they could repent and serve us for 2 seasons
in order to atone for their past. They praised the Paladins mercy and
agreed to serve.

Sir Lamant sent the deserters with one of the serfs to protect Murph
and the stay to work the lands and go to church on Sundays.

The trackers found the tracks continuing to the west.

As we got to the fancier houses, a fog came and settled in. As it was
dark, it became increasingly difficult to see.

Winston climbed the rooftops to scout. Then a magical fog enveloped us
and everything went black.

A precision coward attacked the brave Maduro. Maduro yelled, “Battle
is changed. Prepare to bring glorly to Ishtar.” Maduro feels the sting
of poison but shakes it off.

Swago left the area of darkness and called for us to rally to him.

Sir Lamont attempted to follow and was struck by a sneaky attacker,
being stabbed in the back.

Winston fired blind into the dark, rolled a 20 and still missed.

The rest of the party left the darkness. Sir Lamont used ghost sound
to make the sounds of soldiers approach and gave a speech announcing
his justice was immenient and calling for the cowards surrender or
death. Winston saw a creature scamper up the roof, move and disappear
down again. He used the still active message spell of Sir Lamont to
communicate this intelligence to the rest of us.

Rodrigo fired his bow at the coward and missed while Winston shot and
hit. The coward looked humanoid, dressed in dark raggedy clothing,
wielding two daggers.

We went north to outflank the stalker. As we were looking around two
men on horses came toward us: Sir Songor and his nephew Rorack who are
very well known and respected members of the community. Sir Songer is
the fief holder of the quarry and is a member of house Nagoyce. His
family is powerful throughout the realm and his considered skilled at
court and knoweldgeable about the region. He oppossed the recent land
grants that the Count recently made to the hedge knights of the region
(including Sir Lamont). Our impression is that he isn’t fond of us or
our friends but hasn’t been hostile either).

We greeted Sir Songor, told him the situation, and asked for his
help. Sir Lamont remembered that Songor is astute and hard to bluff
and his daughter has recently seen dark strangers in the area. Also,
Lamont remembered that people who convince Songer to do stuff are
diplomatic.

Sir Lamont used his diplomacy skills and mentioned how this might be
the creature that his daughter nice has seen. Songor offered to loan
us his hunting dogs and then went on his way commenting to his nephew
that this is not the way to run a fief.

We said hello to the Huntsman and he sicked the dogs on the trail and
we followed northwest. Near the northern edge of Lamont’s structure,
we came upon an ancient structure 800-1000 years old. Rodrigo and
Maduro identified as a ruined temple of the warlock emporer of Rome. A heresy
that the one faith eradicated. The warlock king probably built the
other stone structures around here too.

Lamont and Rodrigo convinced the hungtsmen and dogs to enter the
temple. The floor appeared to be recently cleared. It had a grid of
Greek symbols. The corners had cubes with symbols inscribed. We set
the corners to delta and the center 4 squares separated. When we
investigated we saw a small iron box. Rodrigo picked it up and found
it to be surprisingly light. It is a metal cube with a lid on top.

Rodrigo opened it to find a tennis ball sized piece of amber with a
Phi symbol on it. SIr Lamont cast identify and learned that it was an
ancient magical item.

Campaign Start

Background

Player Characters are all veterans of the recent civil war (Sacz Civil War). As such, they are assumed to have acquired sufficient skill and experience to reach level 4 at the campaign start. Sir Larmont (PC) has received a fief from Count Tamas in reward for service during the recent civil war, that being assumed when the character received xp enough for level 4. Sir Larmont does not know the Count well (starting reputation +10), as he did not fight with him during the war. Rather, he was recommend to the position by one of the Count’s close friends, Baron Husaza, who was killed at Bloody Hill. Over half of the Count’s knights were killed in during civil war in the brutal fighting in southern Erzstergom. Some died without families or heirs to their fiefs. Thus, needing to replenish his county with skilled vassals, the Count offered Larmont knighthood, which comes with a small entitled land holding just east of Eastshore near the village of Milltown. Sir Larmont has typical vassal responsibilities to the Count. Sir Larmont’s chief contact in the court of Count Tamas is the Attia a Nyustya, the Chancellor of County Gemer; he also is known to Gabriel a Jolvsa, the County Steward.

Game Start

You have all gathered for an evening drink at the small country manor home of Sir Larmont, a recently made knight in the County of Gemer. Larmont received a fief from Count Tamas for his service during the recent civil war. Larmont does not know the Count well and did not fight with him during the war, but was recommended to his service by one of the Count’s close friends, Baron Husaza, who was killed at Bloody Hill. Count Tamas lost over half of his vassals in that terrible battle. Thus, needing to replenish his county with skilled fighters, Tamas offered Larmont a small land holding just east of Eastshore in return for vassalage. As such, Sir Larmont has accepted typical loyalty and responsibility to the Count. His chief contact in the court of Count Tamas is Attia a Nyustya, the Chancellor of County Gemer, and he also has made pleasant acquaintance with Gabriel a Jolvsa, the County Steward. Nonetheless, Sir Larmont is not well-acquainted with County Gemer or its nobility. Some nobles have shown outright hostility toward him, having disagreed with the Count’s decision to elevate men from outside the County to titled positions.

Sir Larmont knows a few people in the County well, especially Maduro and Swago, two soldiers he knows from fighting in the civil war. They both know that Sir Larmont is less adept with his sword that with his tongue, but are pleased to see a companion and friend raised to knighthood in County Gemer. Swago, knowing himself to be the superior fighter, silently begrudges that he should have been the one knighted for his heroic exploits on the battlefield, but knows that his low birth in Southshore makes him unfavorable among the nobility. He has resigned himself to a soldiers life, and hopes to make his fortune by sticking around Sir Larmont. The paladin Maduro is now a junior member of the Gray Rain Troupe of holy warriors, after his own troupe was decimated in the final battles of the war. While the Gray Rain has been welcoming to him, Maduro has found it to be a less strict and less orthodox troupe than his former. He has taken recent pleasure in the company of a foreign priest, Rodrigo, who is visiting the region from Naples. Rodrigo seems to share Maduro’s view of the One Faith. As such, Maduro has invited Rodrigo along to meet Sir Larmont and share a cup of wine with his comrades.